Welcome to the EGGhead Forum - a great place to visit and packed with tips and EGGspert advice! You can also join the conversation and get more information and amazing kamado recipes by following Big Green Egg to Experience our World of Flavor™ at:
Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Instagram  |  Pinterest  |  Youtube  |  Vimeo
Share your photos by tagging us and using the hashtag #BigGreenEgg.

Want to see how the EGG is made? Click to Watch

Smoking Woods Chips or Chunks?

Unknown
Unknown
edited November -0001 in EggHead Forum
To All:[p]My wife bought me a large BGE for the holidays. I finally got a chance to use it last evening during a freezing rain/sleet event to cook steaks. They came out as I intended- "black 'n Blue" (perfect!). Having used Webers for 20+ years I was amazed by the BGE's heat output. Tonight I intend to smoke some ribs and will be using a "mix" of wood chips (hickory, mesquite, maple,and apple). My question to the readership- how do smoking chips compare to chunks? Thank you in advance for your responses. Jay
· Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Comments

  • BigT
    BigT Posts: 385
    JayB,[p]In my limited experience, I find little difference. [p]I either place one single dry chunk atop glowing lump or do the same with a handful of dry chips sealed in a tin foil pack (jabbed once / twice with a fork for venting.)[p]Either way gives me plenty of smoke for my taste; I use hickory chunks, apple & JD chips, and cedar planks (the planks I soak first before preheating)[p]hth[p]BigT

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • Charbon
    Charbon Posts: 222
    JayB,
    I like the large chunks. The bags I buy I think are for burning in place of lump. Easy, cheap, convenient. You often have the remains of a chunk left over.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • RU Eggsperienced
    RU Eggsperienced Posts: 1,527
    JayB,[p]Don't think it matters. Both work great.[p]Personally I like the chips since you don't need to soak them as long and if you are like me you may forget.[p]A guy at the grill store said to do concentric circles on top of the unlit coals (I use cube starter). Don't know about that I just grab a handful or two of soaked chips and spread around the top. I have cooked 12+ hour adventures with chips left over..[p]I use pecan for turkey, apple for pork and hickory for beef. Would keep more but running out of space to put all my stuff.[p]Hope this helps....
    [ul][li]My humble Eggstra Special Eggsperience Webpage[/ul]
    Cheers.....Jerry


    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • SMITTYtheSMOKER
    SMITTYtheSMOKER Posts: 2,668
    JayB,[p]I feel that chunks do not need soaking, as the soaking process keeps smaller chips from igniting into flames. I put 2-3 small chunks of my prefered flavor into my lump mix and let them burn. Your meat typically can only take smoke for the first 30 minutes or so, so any additional smoke is somewhat wasted. I just got a maple smoking wood I'm looking forward to trying myself.[p]Here's a breakdown of wood flvors on the SCV website-[p]

    [ul][li]Santa Clara Valley Smoking Woods[/ul]

     

    -SMITTY     

    from SANTA CLARA, CA

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • icemncmth
    icemncmth Posts: 1,165
    JayB,[p]I use chips most of the time..[p]For example...I just cooked two pork butts for 26.25 hours and I had taken about 2 cups of chips..soaked them for an hour..then spread them out on newspaper to dry a little..[p]Then I loaded charcoal all the way to the top of the fire ring and the chips were spread all through out the lump..[p]It smoked the whole time...
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • Wyldwood
    Wyldwood Posts: 84
    SMITTYtheSMOKER,
    I've been using maple lately and like it. Last used on some fatties. Seems to be a milder almost sweet smoke to me.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • JayB
    JayB Posts: 14
    icemncmth, [p]I want to thank you all for your responses. I used a "mix" of mesquite, hickory, maple, apple, and oak chips for my smoke. I folllowed a variation of JJ's methodology and used my own rub and sauce mix. The results were spetacular! Jay
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Categories